Clinging onto Celebrity?

Being a celebrity is a business in itself. Whether you it’s someone you idolize, being a singer or a chef (huge Mary Berry fan right here) or you are addicted to the showbiz section on the Mail Online, we are all guilty on some level of endorsing the nature of celebrity.

My Celeb Crush

I believe you can safely say that we as a society are pretty star dependent, we write about them, we tweet about them, we read about them, we watch them in films, on the television, we buy there latest collections, perfume, we listen to them on the radio, we buy their music, we even buy their possessions on eBay. 

However, has the fashion industry also fallen into this cavern of celebrity dependence? It has been argued that designers nowadays have fallen into relying on celebrities to set their trends and promote their collections. So how true is this? Has an industry, where designers once got their collections noted because of their originality and fashion was seen as a way of expressing yourself, been lost and become subject to the popular culture of the rich and famous to get their pieces noted, rather than striving for this by the using the clothes alone?

It’s a tricky question to answer. Looking into how far back the nature of celebrity goes, you can date it as far back as the 40s, when the industry of Hollywood broke out and designers would be brawling to dress hollywood stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor. These have slowly been replaced by the Cara Delevignes, Rhiannas and Lady Gagas of the world today.

Marilyn Monroe

Audrey Hepburn

Stars today - Cara D

These ladies have been viewed as ‘living breathing displays for fashion houses across the world’, however is this necessarily a bad thing? Sam Norton, writer for The Equinox, argued that “we as a society dress in a way that is no longer a representation of themselves”. You could in some manner agree with this point, we have  lost the original charm that the sub cultures of the 80s held, who wore what represented them as a group, instead of pursuing the latest fashion trend set by someone else...  bringing us back to our original point, we may follow the trends, but who sets the trends? The designer of the label or the face of it?

Victoria Beckham Marc Jacobs campaign

Beyonce - H&M

“From the beginning of the 20th Century, celebrities started started to play a crucially important role in fashion - by patronising designers and, in wearing their clothes, giving prominence to their designs” Sam Norton appears to be of the opinion that this is a terrible thing, and we all need to snap out of it and remember the ‘true meaning of fashion’, “this needs to be changed; in how designers design their muses for a therefore change in how society represents itself”, he seems to be under the impression that if one celebrity wears a small skirt, a babble of teenage girls will follow along with this, making out designers and celebrities to be some kind of evil force that is going to encourage your teenager to wear eccentric and wayward ensembles.

However i disagree. Although he does make a relevant point, and perhaps a lot of us are influenced by particular designers and trends set by celebrities, I do not believe that it ‘shapes’ us as a society, and that the relationship between celebrity and designer is a bad thing. Not every eccentric outfit worn on the red carpet is going to be then seen on your local high street 2 days later, unless everyone who has been emulating Lady Gagas meat dress has been hiding round corners whenever i’ve gone to walk by. 

Meaty - Lady Gaga

It's how the saying goes, everyone and everything has to start somewhere. Yes, maybe you did get the idea to wear a Antonio Berardi dress from his resort collection because you saw fKate Bosworth wore it to the premiere of Straw Dogs, but why the hell wouldn’t you? She looked fabulous, and Antonio should be commended for his magical sewing machine. Here instead of seeing a celebrity and a designer scheming together, just to get them a little more noted, I see an actress, choosing to wear an amazing dress that flattered her astonishingly and gave the designer the commendation that he truly deserved for his design. It’s all about personal choice at the end of the day, whether you choose to follow a particular design or trend endorsed by a celeb, or you opt the your own ensembles, as long as it empowers you and you look and feel great, there’s no harm done right? 

Kate Bosworth in Antonio Berardi